U.S. One Dollar Coins

SILVER DOLLARS

CLAD DOLLARS

Eager to promote commerce and trade, one of Congress' first acts was to establish a sovereign coinage system.

Minted in silver-rich Mexico the Spanish milled dollar or Piece of Eight aka 8-Reales ("8 bits") coins were the most popular
silver coins used in the American Colonies. On the recommendation of Thomas Jefferson, this widely used Spanish coin was adopted
as the official U.S. silver dollar.

The Coinage Act of April 2, 1792 authorized the Mint and prescribed the standards for the new federal decimal coinage. The dollar
was the cornerstone of the monetary system devised by the Founding Fathers for the United States.

The United States was the first country to adopt a decimal system of coinage. Instead of using "bits" (1/8 dollar) lesser coins
were to be issued in "cents" (1/100 dollars).

More than two years passed, however, between the time Congress authorized dollar coinage and the actual production of the first
such coin, the Flowing Hair silver dollar.

★★★★★ Flowing Hair Dollar ★★★★★

The silver dollar was intended to be the cornerstone of the U.S. monetary system. It was a display of America's ability to
produce a silver coin similar to the Spanish pieces of eight.

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Flowing Hair Dollar(1794 1795)

On the obverse of the nations first silver dollar, Liberty is portrayed as a young woman with her head held high and her hair,
unfettered, flowing down her back. The word "LIBERTY" is at twelve o'clock and the date is at six o'clock. Fifteen six pointed
stars complete the circle around a dentilled rim.

On the reverse, in the center is an eagle perched on a rock, his wings partially outstretched, circled by a pair of olive
branches tied at the bottom. The legend THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA form the outer circle just inside the dentilled rim.

Either forgotten or considered unnecessary, the denomination of the first dollar was omitted.

The early dollars were produced from hand made dies, this probably accounts for the variations in known examples. Blanks for
the dollars were weighed before a coin was struck, if too heavy, blanks were filed down to remove excess silver, if too lite, a
small silver plug was put in the center to increase the weight. Adjustment marks, are often still visible and they remind us of
the history associated with early coin production.

Unable to produce coins of this size in 1794, most dollars were weakly struck, some so weak they were rejected for circulation.
1,758 dollars were minted in 1794 before production stopped. In May, 1795 the Mint procured a press that could produce a better
strike.

Flowing Hair Dollar Grading

The Draped Bust Silver Dollar 1795 - 1804

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Type 1 Small Eagle(1795-1798)

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Type 2 Heraldic Eagle(1798 - 1804)

The new design was very striking. Where the earlier Flowing Hair design was youthful and vivacious with her hair flowing
freely behind her, the new design was a full figured woman in the flower of womanhood and her hair bound by a ribbon. LIBERTY
and the date are the only inscriptions on the obverse. This portrait has come to be known as the Draped Bust design and appears
on the most valuable U.S. coin rarity, the 1804 silver dollar.

In 1795 (the second year of silver dollar production) both the "Flowing Hair" type and the "Draped Bust" type were produced.

When the Flowing Hair portrait of Liberty was retired, the Mint made the decision to keep the reverse essentially the same. The
small, naturalistic eagle encircled by a wreath was retained with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA inscribed around the border. However,
the eagle seems more graceful, also the eagle is perched on a cloud instead of a rock. In addition, the laurel wreath was replaced
by a wreath of palm and olive branches.

Lettering on the edge is: HUNDRED CENTS ONE DOLLAR OR UNIT, with decorations separating the words.

In 1798 the young hatch ling eagle seen on the earlier dollar was replaced with an
larger, older and more naturalistic eagle that was more in keeping with heraldic iconography.

There was a major oversight in the Heraldic Eagle: It was the placement of the arrows in the eagle's right claw (the more
honorable placement in heraldry) thus leaving the olive branch in the left (or less honorable) claw. This implied that War was
more honorable than peace. We assume the implications were unintended.

During the six years that the Draped Bust Heraldic Eagle dollars were struck, 1,153,709 coins were produced. However, there
are dozens of die varieties. While most involving only a small difference in the placement of the stars, numerals, letters or
other design elements, there are other important design changes.

There are two different patterns of stars on the reverse above the eagle's head on the 1798 dollar. The first was known as
the "cross pattern" (a modification of The Great Seal of the United States). The second stars arrangement was two triangular
groups of six joined by a single star in the middle (known as the "arc pattern"). The earlier "cross pattern" configuration is
generally the scarcer of the two.

Around 1800 silver dollars began to disappear from circulation. This was because many were being shipped overseas or being
melted for their intrinsic value. Over two centuries after they were manufactured, the Draped Bust dollars continues to be widely
collected.

Draped Bust (Small Eagle) Grading

Select a grade image for comparison to your coin.

Grading Made Easy@ TheCoinSpot.com

Wear first begins to shows on the hair above the forehead and on
the hair over her ear and shoulder and on the area where the bust meets the drapery line.
On the reverse, pay attention to the center of the eagle’s breast and the ribbon.

Draped Bust Dollar (Large Eagle) Grading

Select a grade image for comparison to your coin.

Grading Made Easy@ TheCoinSpot.com

Wear first begins to shows on the hair above the forehead and on
the hair over her ear and shoulder and on the area where the bust meets the drapery line.
On the reverse, pay attention to the center of the eagle’s breast and the ribbon.

Sitting Liberty Silver Dollar 1836 - 1873

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Type 1 Flying Eagle ReverseWith Stars (1836)

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Type 2 Flying Eagle ReverseNo Stars (1836 - 1839)

The Mint Quit striking dollar coins in 1804. Even though the dollar was the primary unit of U.S. coinage, few dollar coins
circulated in the early part of the 19th century. Most dollar coins were either melted domestically or exported.

In the 1820s and 1830s Mint directors, Moore and Patterson, both advocated reviving the coinage. Moore obtained authorization
in 1831, but it was Patterson who in 1835 finally got preparations under way.

In keeping with the Neoclassical movement of the time, Engraver Christian Gobrecht designed a seated Liberty, the date and the
designer's name as the only three obverse element. Approximately 18 coins were struck as patterns, and approved both by President
Andrew Jackson and his cabinet. However, the prominence of Gobrecht's name led to charges of conceit. The moving Gobrecht's name
satisfied critics, and the first 1,000 coins were struck in late 1836.

Click to view example.

The obverse of the Gobrecht dollar shows Liberty seated on a rock with Classical flowing robes, her head turned to her right,
left arm bent, the hand holding a liberty pole, topped with a cap and her right arm extended downward at her side balancing a
shield with the word LIBERTY on a curving banner. The date is at the six o'clock. The coin rim is raised with a circle of dentils
inside, and the edge is plain.

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Type 3 Perched EagleNo Motto (1840 - 1865)

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Type 4 Perched EagleWith Motto (1866 - 1873)

On the reverse is an eagle in flight. Based on the orientation to the obverse the eagle is flying upward on 1836 dollars,
within a field of 26 six-point stars. 13 stars are slightly larger (representing the original 13 states) and thirteen stars
are smaller (for the 13 more recent states added to the Union).

1838-1839 Dollars have 13 six-point stars surrounding the seated Liberty and the stars were removed for the reverse. Using the
obverse for orientation, the eagle is flying flat, however, if orientated with the ONE DOLLAR at the bottom, the eagle is
flying upward similar to the 1836 Dollar.

The reverse has a raised rim and circle of dentils, inside that is a concentric circle of text, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
around the top two thirds of the coin, with ONE DOLLAR completing the circle at the bottom. The two phrases are separated by a
small raised ring with a dot inside.

The obverse was not changed from the Gobrecht dollar, but the flying eagle was removed from the reverse. It was replaced by a
perched eagle whose wings are partially spread centered inside a dentilled rim. The eagle holds an olive branch in the right claw
and the left claw carries three arrows. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA encircles the top two-thirds of the coin just inside the rim,
with the ONE DOL. denomination at the six o'clock position.

After four very long years of civil war, the bitterness and hatred that divided the North and South turned to numbness and shock.
1861 to 1866 had seemed like an eternity. With an end came to the fighting, Americans came to the realization of how devastating
the war had been. The United States would never be the same again, but it was now and forever would be a single Union. Many of
the religious populace saw this sacrifices made on both sides by the dead and the living as divine judgment from above.

A Pennsylvania minister suggested to Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase that a religious motto be added to the nation's coins.
Secretary Chase then asked Mint Director Pollock to develop a plan for implementing this sentiment on America's coins. A number of
possibilities were suggested, including: GOD AND OUR COUNTRY, GOD IS OUR SHIELD, and GOD OUR TRUST. Of course,
Chase selected: IN GOD WE TRUST.

Turning to religion in their grief, Americans made religion their new priority. The new
motto IN GOD WE TRUST first appeared on the new two-cent piece minted in 1864. It was so well received that on
March 3, 1865, Congress mandated its use on all gold and silver coins when possible. The law was implemented in 1866 and seven
other coins was adorned with this statement of faith including the Liberty Seated dollar.

Liberty Seated Dollar Grading

Trade Dollar 1873 - 1878

Trade Dollar (1873 1878)

After the Civil War, the Comstock Lode and other Western mines were producing large quantities of silver, but the government
could use only limited amounts of it in coinage.

For a time, the miners found outlets for their silver, often in coinage form, in foreign markets such as Canada, Latin America
and Europe. But, for various reasons these markets became saturated and then The Coinage Act of 1873, Congress suspending further
production of silver dollars.

That's where the trade dollar came in: The mining interests won approval for a new silver coin one that would not only provide an
outlet for Silver, but also open a whole new market in Asia. Asia was already receiving much Congressional attention, particularly
China.

Some U.S. silver had found its way to that region earlier and the Chinese had shown a preference for US silver coins, however,
up to then the bulk of US trade with China had been carried out with Spanish and Mexican Silver.

The trade dollar's biggest problems was not in China but in the US. Congress had made the coin a legal tender for domestic payments
up to five dollars. In 1876, millions were dumped into circulation in the United States when silver prices plummeted, making them
worth more as money than as metal.

Congress quickly revoked the legal tender status (the only time this has been done with a U.S. coin). In the late 1870s, employers
bought up huge numbers of the coins at 80 to 83 cents apiece and then put them in pay envelopes as face value coins. Merchants and
banks accepted them only at bullion value or rejected them altogether, so the workers effectively lost one-sixth to one-fifth of
their pay at a time when that pay often amounted to less than $10 a week.

U.S. Trade Dollar Grading

Liberty Head Morgan Dollar 1878 - 1921

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Liberty Head "Morgan" Dollar(1878 - 1921)

Hardly anyone missed the last "cartwheel", or Liberty Seated dollar, when it was legislated out of existence in 1873. However,
the silver-mining interests missed the large silver dollars. The Comstock Lode in Nevada was producing $36 million of silver
annually. They lobbied Congress forcefully for its return.

Nearly four months before passage of the Bland-Allison Act, the Treasury (aware of the heavy lobbing) began making preparations
for a new dollar coin. Mint Director Henry P. Linderman ordered Chief Engraver William Barber and George T. Morgan, to prepare
pattern dollars, with the best design to be used on the new coin.

1878 marked the beginning of 26 years of the Morgan silver dollar mintage. Morgan's obverse features a left-facing portrait
of Miss Liberty. The reverse depicts a somewhat scrawny eagle this led some to vilify the coin as a buzzard dollar. The
original design of the Morgan silver dollar gave the eagle on the reverse 7 tail feathers, but before the first year had ended,
an additional feather was added making 8 tail feathers. Both varsities appeared in 1878 but by the following year all had 8 tail
feathers. The designer's initial M appears on both sides (which was a first). Mintmarks (O, S, D, and CC) are found below the
wreath on the reverse.

In 26 years of the Morgan silver dollar mintage, some 657 million dollars were struck in 96 different date and mint combinations.

In spite of the large mintage of these coins a relatively small number remain: The Pitman Act of 1918 mandated that 270
million "older" silver dollars be melted. If that was not enough, The Silver Act of 1942 also resulted in melting many more
millions of silver dollars. No, it doesn't end there, in the 1960's silver prices made melting coins profitable, so the private
sector began melting silver dollars.

The first places to wear on the Morgans are the hair above Liberty's eye and ear, the high upper fold of her cap and the
crest of the eagle's breast.

Liberty Bust (Morgan) Dollar Grading

Peace Silver Dollar 1921 - 1964

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Type 1 High Relief

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Type 2 Low Relief

While World War I was in progress, and shortly after the end, it was refereed to as
the "war to end all wars". Unfortunately, that was not to be. From 1914 to 1918,
Europe was ravaged by the war creating a world wide cry for peace.

After the end of World War I, there was a call for a coin to commemorate the victory
and return to a normal life. Originally, the intention was to issue the "Peace"
Silver Dollar as a commemorative coin. However, it was so popular it became a circulating
coin instead. The word "Peace" on the coin's reverse gave the coin its name.

At that time, the U. S. Mint needed to start producing millions of silver dollars
in order to comply with the Pittman Act of 1918. The Pittman Act was enacted at
the urging of silver mining interests. Under the Act, the government was to melt
up to 350 million silver dollars, convert them into bullion and then either sell
them or use them to produce subsidiary silver coinage. Then, it also was to strike
replacement dollars for those that were melted.

May 9, 1921 legislation was introduced calling for a new silver dollar celebrating
the postwar peace. Congress adjourned without taking action. However congressional
authorization wasn't required, since the Morgan dollar had been produced for more
than 25 years and could be replaced without legislative approval.

A competition was held to determine the design. The winner was a young Italian immigrant
named Anthony de Francisci. His portrait of Liberty was modeled after his young wife Teresa.

The reverse of the coin shows an eagle in repose atop a crag, peering toward the sun
through a series of rays, with the word PEACE superimposed on the rock. No other U. S.
coin produced for circulation has ever borne that motto.

By 1928 the requirements of the Pittman Act were met. The Mint halted production
immediately. The next year brought the onset of the Depression. In 1934 the design
returned because more cartwheels were needed as backing for silver certificates.

The entire series of Peace dollars was just 24 coins, none of which were great rarities.
Many collectors strive for complete date and mint collections. However, pristine,
high grade pieces are difficult to find, weak strikes are common, and the open design
makes the coins easy to wear and damage.

Points to check for wear are Liberty's face, neck and the hair over her ear and
above her forehead. On the reverse, wear will first show on the eagle's wing, leg and head.

The phrase In God We Trust uses the Roman spelling of the word trust, (V
instead of a U). That detail accounts for many owners who believe they have a
rare error on their Peace Dollars.

Peace Dollar Grading

★★★★★ Eisenhower Clad Dollar ★★★★★

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Type 1 Clad Dollar(1971 - 1974) (1977 - 1978)

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Type 2 40% Silver Dollar(1971 - 1974)

The "Peace" dollar (silver dollar) coin ended production after the 1935 issues. However, in 1962 when a sealed vault at the
Philadelphia Mint was opened, hundreds of thousands of Silver dollars were discovered, including some rare issues which were paid
out freely till gone. The Coinage Act of July 23, 1965, required that no silver dollars be struck for five years, when the need
for them could be reevaluated. That "need" became apparent when the Nevada gambling casinos began using dollar-size tokens at
their casinos. Customers, however, preferred dollar coins.

The death of Dwight D. Eisenhower, 5 Star General and two-term U.S. President (about the same time as the 8-day historic
lunar landing by the Apollo XI crew) prompted a House bill that proposed commemorating both events with a dollar coin. Following
a year of debate the new "Ike" dollars were approved.

On December 31, 1970, a bill creating the Eisenhower dollar was passed providing for a circulating dollar coin made from the
clad alloy being used at that time for dimes and quarters (also for half dollars starting in 1971).

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Type 3 Bicentennial Dollar(1975 - 1976)

This bill also permitted up to 150 million silver clad coins for sale to collectors with two outer layers that were 80% silver
and 20% copper bonded to an inner core that was approximately 21% silver and 79% copper. This was the same alloy used for halves
dated 1965-70 and rendered a 40% silver coin.

The United States bicentennial was celebrated in 1976, two hundred years after the signing of the U.S. Declaration of
Independence. As part of the celebration, three special Bicentennial coins were struck as special commemorative coins,
they were the quarter dollar, half dollar and the dollar. Bicentennial dollar coins have the dual date 1776-1976 at the bottom,
the dates separated by a centered dot.

Prior to the nation's impending Bicentennial a competition for a Bicentennial design to grace the reverses of the quarter,
half and dollar, was held. Dennis R. Williams won the design for the dollar's reverse. His visionary design of the Liberty Bell
superimposed on the moon provided a link between past and present.

Regular coinage dated 1974 ended in the middle of 1975, when the new Bicentennial designs dated 1776-1976 went into production:
no dollars were produced dated 1975. These Bicentennial pieces were released in the fall of 1975, and their mintage continued
through the following year.

Anthony Clad Dollar 1979 - 1999

Susan B. Anthony Dollar(1979 - 1999)

The Treasury Department commissioned from the Research Triangle Institute. Their report, submitted in 1976, detailed the
projected coinage needs of the United States through the year 1990.

Coining of a smaller dollar to increase its public acceptance was recommended by the report, also elimination of the cent and
the half dollar denominations. The Eisenhower dollar was seldom used outside of gambling casinos because of its size, the RTI
suggested that a smaller coin would be more likely to find utility in commerce. RTI also suggested a cost savings because the
dollar coin's lifespan was far greater than paper money.

On October 10, 1978 Congress passed the Public Law 95-447 providing for a new one-dollar coin different from all previous
coins. With respect to alloy, the new dollar would be similar, but the diameter of 38.1 mm used on earlier dollars was too large
and heavy to gain wide acceptance. Therefore, the new dollars would be coined with a diameter of 26.5 mm.

Congress adopted the recommended size reduction, but, other important points raised by the RTI report were overlooked. RTI
suggested that the new coin have a distinctive color and/or shape to avoid confusion with existing coin denominations (namely
the quarter). The unique color suggestion was quickly dropped: Congress and the Mint wanted to keep the copper-nickel-clad
composition being used by several other denominations.

A multi-sided coin was, however, serious considered. Thousands of blank pieces were made with eleven flats around their
circumference and given to vending machine manufacturers for testing. Congress authorized a coin that was conventional in all
respects (except for size and a eleven-sided inner border on both sides).

Susan B. Anthony, a long time advocate for women's right to vote, replaced Eisenhower on the one dollar coin in 1979. A eagle
landing on the moon (similar to the Eisenhower dollar) was placed on the reverse side. The round coin was much smaller than the
Eisenhower dollar and appeared to be multi-faceted because of its 11 sided rim.

Easily confused with the quarter dollar coin the coin was very unpopular. However, for uncertain reasons, the coin enjoyed a
resurgence in popularity in the late 1990's before being replaced by the Sacagawea Dollar.

Native American & Presidential One Dollar

Note:

The US Mint produced both Native American Dollars and Presidential Dollars from 2007 to the time of this update
of The Coin Spot. For this reason, it was necessary to depart from the chronological order of presentation of coins.